


New Year's Traditions

by chancellorxofxtrash



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Both Are Socially Awkward, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Monster Earth (Yu-Gi-Oh), Soltis Earth (Yu-Gi-Oh), VrainsRarepairs2019, season 3 what season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22047079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: New Year's Eve is confusing to Earth. Spectre may not be the best person to explain it all to him. Somehow it still works in the end.
Relationships: Earth/Spectre (Yu-Gi-Oh)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13
Collections: VRAINS Rarepairs 2019!





	New Year's Traditions

**Author's Note:**

> Written for VRAINS Rarepair Week 2019
> 
> Day 2: New Years Wishes

“I have a question.”

Spectre glanced down at his duel disk, and from it, a small figure was looking up at him.

“About what?”

“About this... New Year’s Eve everyone is preparing for. It seems arbitrary to me that people would celebrate the time it takes for the planet to circle the Sun this way. I had looked into data about it, but frankly, I do not understand the appeal.”

Earth’s voice was frank as usual, and Spectre couldn’t help, but chuckle.

“Are you seriously asking  _ me  _ about societal customs? You think I went to a lot of New Year’s parties?”

“Obviously not,” Earth replied. “But even if you do not participate in these events, you are knowledgeable about these customs. That knowledge is why I asked you.”

Spectre hummed, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

“I think there are multiple reasons for it. Some cultural, some because it is just a tradition, and of course there are personal reasons. Celebrations like this rarely have a simple answer either, especially if they had been going on for a long time.”

“A lot of celebrations can be tied to human religions, I know that,” Earth pointed out. “Or to personal achievements and milestones - like birthdays and wedding anniversaries. New Year’s Eve just seems useless to me.”

“If you get down to it,” Spectre hummed, pressing Earth’s forehead with one finger. “Even birthday is that too. One more year passed since you were born. What is the point of that? New Year’s Eve is similar as well. One more year passed.”

“But by this logic we could appoint any other day and celebrate on that day every 365 years.”

Earth was obviously frowning now, trying his best to understand, and Spectre chuckled a bit.

“We could. And I guess we did. The last day of a year, start of a new one, is a good point to start that, don’t you think?”

~*~

Earth’s presence was something Spectre was not planning on at all obviously, and yet once it happened, it somehow made perfect sense.

He had known he had an Ignis created based on him. He knew it from almost the beginning, but he discarded it as unimportant. He wanted to help the Knights of Hanoi as gratitude for everything they had done for him. So if Ryoken and the Knights wanted the Ignis to be gone, he was going to adapt that mission as his own. It was a goal to work towards, a way to repay them.

The way Playmaker was attached to his Ignis seemed almost foreign to Spectre - it was obvious him and Playmaker had extremely different view of their experience. It was almost poetic, Spectre figured - Playmaker hated everything about the Incident, while was attached to the results of it; and Spectre was the other way around: grateful to the Incident, and disregarding the Ignis that was born from studying him.

Well.

That was initially the case, after all.

He did not expect to feel like a part of him died alongside the Earth Ignis. He did not expect the emptiness in his soul that refused to go away.

He also did not expect to feel the  _ relief  _ that he felt when he came back.

Earth was not like Spectre, and in a way, he was very much like him. He wondered how much was this true for the other pairs out there. Playmaker and the Dark Ignis for example were seemingly polar opposites and yet, they seemed to mash perfectly.

Spectre could not understand a lot of how Playmaker was thinking - his rage and revenge were almost incomprehensible to Spectre, something he  _ understood  _ on a base level, but it was not something he could empathise with. There was only one thing he could understand completely from the way Playmaker was - and that was the way they were both endlessly grateful to the same person.

But when he looked at Playmaker and the Dark Ignis on his arm or by his side, he figured that maybe there was  _ something else  _ about Playmaker he understood.

~*~

Earth, like the other Ignis, was also given a SOLtiS body - a taller, more broader one compared to all the others. And looked way less eccentric than the others - his brown haid had blue highlights, and his eyes were a very bright light blue colour, gently glowing.

Also he was wearing jeans with a brown hoodie, and under that a simple shirt and suspenders. He looked almost… normal, at least compared to the other six Ignis, who attracted attention wherever they went.

He was quite taller than Spectre too as they were standing next to each other in Link VRAINS, looking over everyone frantically preparing for New Year’s Eve.

“I still don’t understand fully.”

“Well you can understand it as people wanting any excuse to get drunk and let themselves go.”

“But again, that could be any other day,” Earth stressed. “Why that day? Why is it made into a big deal universally?”

“Part of it is probably the connection too,” Spectre shrugged. “People like to form connections and bonds. Knowing that everyone else is celebrating the same thing must be fantastic.”

“But even that doesn’t make sense,” Earth said bluntly. “There are multiple religions and cultures where they celebrate New Year some other time. Not to mention the different timezones.”

“People also like to ignore others who does not conform to their own cultures.”

Earth frowned, leaning forward to look at all the VRAINS avatars swarming, everyone already excited for the celebration.

Spectre sighed, stepping forward, putting a hand on Earth’s back, making the Ignis look up at him with those bright eyes of his.

“It is also where our calendar year ends, so we start all over again. It is a celebration, that we made it through another year. A celebration that people can put the past year behind them.”

Earth nodded a little.

“That makes sense. Especially our lives had been full of near-death experiences. I think that is a more logical reason to celebrate.”

Figures that Earth would think so.

~*~

Earth was surprisingly soft around his edges, actually. He was the biggest, most robust Ignis out of all of them, even his monster form could get the biggest.

Occasionally, when Spectre was laying back and reading, Earth would watch him from his duel disk, and Spectre could feel the awkwardness and the uncertainty ooze off from him.

Until one day, he sighed.

“You can come over and check it out, you know.”

Earth climbed out from his duel disk, and ended up scooped up by Spectre’s side, looking at the book as well, at first barely touching him.

When Spectre touched their heads together he actually noticed how much Earth was blushing, and Spectre couldn’t help smirking.

“Really? This much and you already blush?”

“...I am…”

“Socially awkward. I know.”

But when Earth actually wrapped his long tendrils around Spectre, resting his head on Spectre’s shoulder as well, the most Spectre was surprised by how  _ soft  _ he was.

~*~

“So, if New Year’s Eve is a celebration of survival, shouldn’t it be celebrated appropriately?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“By a duel.”

It was the last day of the year, and Earth’s bright blue eyes were fixed on Spectre.

“You want to duel me into the new year?”

“It would be appropriate, would it not?”

“I guess that is an unorthodox tradition, but one that fits you.”

Earth nodded.

“In Link VRAINS, then?”

“No,” Spectre said, standing up. “I have a better idea.”

~*~

Watching the year’s first sunrise from a high spot was nice in theory. In reality you had to track up in the cold, looking over the entire Den City.

Good thing nobody really went close to Stardust Road, and Ryoken didn’t mind that Spectre took Earth there. Ryoken barely went to his old home anymore either way.

“I assumed when you talked about watching the first sunset of the year that you wanted to take a hike.”

“Out in the cold? I didn’t lose my mind, Earth. Besides, there isn’t really a better place to catch the view than from here. At least not near Den City.”

Earth nodded, tapping his foot on the ground.

“So this is where we are going to duel?”

It wasn’t the first time they duelled, and duelling Earth was almost familiar even the first time they had done that.

“Are you out of questions about New Year’s Eve, Earth?”

“The most common traditions I found make sense if I look at today as a celebration of survival,” Earth replied, looking through the cards in his hand. “Celebrating surviving, having an outing with friends and such. Food and drinks relevant to one’s culture. Resolutions to make sure we make the most of the upcoming year - a way of making a resolution to stay alive for next New Year’s Eve.”

Spectre stopped, frowning a little.

“That is an interesting viewpoint.”

“Is it? I think it makes sense,” Earth looked up at him. “A promise for a new year. A new… start. Isn’t that what a resolution is always about?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“I think it is. Would be more effective if humans would be better to keep their resolutions.”

“Maybe humans should stick to resolutions they  _ can  _ do, and not unrealistic ones.”

Spectre laughed out loud, throwing his head back.

“Well, we humans are absolutely trash at that.”

“I noticed.”

Earth’s voice was blunt, but in his usual, non-malicious way. It was just that - an observation, something he noticed.

Spectre wondered if Earth was even  _ capable  _ of being underhanded.

“You know why we came here?”

“No. I assumed you would tell me.”

“It is a tradition to watch the year’s first sunrise, and this is a place from where it will be beautiful,” Spectre gestured towards the giant windows. “And the view is going to be beautiful here. The first sunrise of the new year, symbolising a fresh start.”

Earth turned his head, looking outside, transfixed - and meanwhile the clock struck twelve.

And Spectre smirked.

He moved forward, walking towards Earth, making the playing field disappear - now that made Earth looked back, confusion evident on his face. And Spectre just pushed himself on his tiptoes, and reached up to pull Earth down for a kiss.

Earth’s body stiffened from surprise, before he eased into the kiss a bit more, putting his hands on Spectre’s waist awkwardly - and when they parted, he saw just how red Earth had gotten.

“Happy new year, Earth.”

“...is this another tradition?”

“Actually, yes,” Spectre smirked. “They say the first encounter for the first year is the most important - and of course the nature of that encounter.”

“...I see.”

“So. I give the others like two more minutes before they start to call and bother us to wish us a happy new year. So, if you want to do it again…”

“...yes.”

Their next kiss was not less awkward, but longer, and Spectre found himself lifted up by Earth, seemingly without much effort at all.

For good luck to the next year, obviously.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
